IOR/L/PS/9/76/299

A copy of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Marquess Wellesley, Governor-General of Bengal, sent from Bussora and dated 28 July 1803.

The letter describes a political crisis in Bussora resulting from the detention of an Egyptian woman living with a British sailor, Captain John White. This incident leads to the intervention of the Bacha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah, Governor of Baghdad]; the arrest of Mahomed Nejeeb Beg [Muḥammad Najīb Beg], the Mussaleem [Mutasallim, Governor] of Bussora; threats from Manesty to remove the Bussora Residency to India if the woman is not released; and a dispute between Manesty and the Bacha.

Included in the letter are:

• A translation of the Bacha’s orders to the Mussaleem, received 12 June 1803
• Translations of Manesty’s correspondence with the Bacha and the temporary Governor of Bussora in June 1803
• Copies of Manesty’s correspondence, dated 10 June-3 July 1803, with Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad, who disapproves of Manesty’s handling of the affair, and correspondence between Jones and the Bacha dated 29 June-21 July 1803
• Translations of petitions from inhabitants of Bussora complaining against Manesty, in particular regarding the case of the Egyptian woman
• Translations of two representations from the Cathee [Qāḍī, Magistrate] of Bussora to the Bacha concerning the Egyptian woman
• A letter from Manesty to William Drummond, HM Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, on the affair, dated 21 July 1803.

Arabic and Farsi versions of some of this correspondence are catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/300-310.